Everything is possible - it's just a question of how much it will cost

According to the Bulgarian State Railway website, "Large domestic, hunting and service dogs are transported only in the entry lobbies of the last coach of the train. Dogs must have muzzles on and a veterinary certificate. The owners should buy for their dog ½ second-class a ticket for the corresponding train category."

If you've been reading my blog from the beginning, you must know that I have traveled on a train from Sofia to Thessaloniki once before. For 10 extra leva, the conductor let us have a 1st class cabin. Unfortunately, that was way back in August. Now the prices have gone up.

When mom decided to flee to Greece, we went to the train station and mom tried to buy the designated 1/2 second-class ticket for me. The cashier started mumbling about passports, muzzles (mom did carry a muzzle for me), and in the end she threw her hands up and said she'd leave it up to the conductor. We got on the train which, to mom's great relief, was one of the newer ones. If you haven't been on a train in Bulgaria then you should know that there are two kinds: the first is the old-style, with cabins of six seats; the second, newer kind, looks more like a bus, no cabins, but an isle in the middle and two seats on each side. Mom tied me at the "entry lobby" and took the first seat next to me.

Now, the so-called "entry lobby" is not really a lobby. Rather, it's a 3ftx6ft area (1 x 2 meters). It's not exactly spacious. Not a problem for me, of course, but certainly a problem for people who're trying to go from wagon to wagon and have to step over me. It makes me wonder what the people who made the rules were thinking, that it would be easier that way? Oh well. So mom had an eye on me constantly in order to make sure I don't bother anybody. At some point, she sees a guy get on the train, and upon seeing me, run towards me exclaiming "куче! (=doggie!)". When he got close, mom saw the 'conductor tag' on his jacket.

Before you start envying my luck, let me say that this was the easiest part of the trip. Not only did the nice conductor not mind me being there, but he didn't even ask for a ticket either. That was NOT the case in Sofia.

In Sofia, mom got a simple (not in a sleeping car) round-trip ticket since she knows that dogs are not allowed in sleeping cars. When we got to the train, however, the conductors told us that we can't be anywhere on the sitting wagons because there are too many people and referred us to the sleeping car. The sleeping car conductor told us that we can get a cabin, no problem. Of course, this whole thing smelled fishy to mom, but it wasn't like we had a choice.

Long story short, mom had to pay an extra 70 euro (yes, euro!) for a first class ticket (because we occupied the whole 3-person cabin, never mind that whenever there is space, they always put people by themselves), ON TOP of the 2nd class ticket she had already bought, instead of paying just for the difference. The same happened on the way back. Yep, that's 140 euro extra. You didn't think having a dog was cheap, did you?

The bright side of all this was that we had a very comfortable trip. That was a very good thing, considering that for some reason it took us 11 hours from Sofia to Thessaloniki, instead of the scheduled 6-7 hours. I don't know if I would have survived that long in the "entry lobby".

Coming back from Sofia to Plovdiv we had a different conductor, a young, polite lady who was probably new on the job. She did ask for a ticket and when mom explained the experience with the cashier, she said she'd ask the driver. She came back asking for 6,5 leva. Mom paid it. What's a drop in the ocean after all? And then, the conductor did the most shocking thing of all: she gave mom a receipt! Can you imagine? A receipt! From the 140 euro and 6.5 leva that mom had to pay extra for this trip, she did get a receipt for 6.5 leva.

The cherry on the cake was the taxi from the train station to the apartment in Plovdiv. After negotiating with the driver about me, mom and I got in the taxi and then mom noticed that there is no meter. Great. Mom had heard about such cases, but had never experienced one first hand. Nevertheless, she stayed calm, and after listening carefully to the driver's explanation (the meter is for the gas, this car runs on diesel, so no problem - did he think mom is THAT blond?) she asked to get off earlier on some pretext. She paid the driver the 5 leva that he asked for (still more than the whole ride would have cost) and we walked home.

ahhh, home sweet home! Or one of them, anyway...